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Grant Allgood

Mr. Taylor

English Honors I

10 January 2019

Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Characters

Have you ever had any speculations about any characters in books or plays may have any

mental disorders or illnesses? Well there is one character that obviously has an Oppositional

Defiant Disorder. Tybalt, he is a character that plays in the play Romeo and Juliet, in The

Elements of Literature.

Tybalt is a very angry person that won't follow anyones rules, and loses temper very

easily. The acts that Tybalt is doing in the play have the same characteristics as the symptoms of

Oppositional Defiant Disorder such as losing temper, arguing with others, refusing to comply,

and being angry/resentful(“Oppositional”). The amount of hate and anger is shown in just the

first words that Tybalt says “what, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word” (Shakespeare 790)

This only a couple of reasons why I think Tybalt has this disorder.

Tybalt also refuses to comply and argues with adults as shown in scene I act I page 789.

This scene shows when Romeo is in the house of capulet party and Tybalt recognizes him, but

lord capulet doesn't want to disturb Romeo and Tybalt does not agree with him, and says “It fits,

when such a villain is a guest: i’ll not endure him” (Shakespeare 812) and also says before this “

this, by his voice, should be a montague. Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares to slave come

hither, cover’s with an entree face, to fleer and scorn at our solemnity? Now, by the stock and
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honor of my kin, to strike him dead, i hold it not a sin.” (Shakespeare 810) these two important

scenes show how violent or resentful Tybalt is.

Despite the evidence demonstrating Tybalt having oppositional defiant disorder, many

people believe he doesn’t, but they fail to see the truth. Those who believe don’t think that he

doesn't have this disorder might just have another disorder or he wasn’t raised in the right

environment. The other disorder or illness he could have would be the Conduct disorder. The

symptoms for this disorder are aggressive behavior, destructive behavior, deceitful behavior, and

violation of rules (Bhandari). Another reason could be that he was raised in the wrong

environment, because he was raised to hate the montagues that it must have gotten to his head

and just had so much hatred upon the montagues.

After all of the facts oppositional defiant disorder is the most reasonable disorder or cause

to why Tybalt is very angry all the time. The symptoms of the disorder are the same as Tybalts

actions throughout the play.

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Works Cited

Bhandari, Smitha. “Conduct Disorder: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment.” WebMD, WebMD, 20 May 2018,

www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-conduct-disorder#1.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet .

Harris, Bethany, et al. Elements of Literature. BJU Press, 2012.

Bressert, Steve. “Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms.” Psych Central, 4 Feb. 2018,

psychcentral.com/disorders/oppositional-defiant-disorder-symptoms/.